All Articles For Go Ye Into All the World

Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Reformed minister-on-loan to Singapore. This article is about opportunities—opportunities to practice missions. The world is changing. Nations are mixing with nations, ethnic groups are intermingling with others. This is the biblical pattern if we understand the nature of the world in the last days. Commercial leaders call it globalization. Politicians speak of the New World Order. World communications no longer depend upon the infrastructure of individual nations; satellites eliminate all of this. The Bible speaks of the coming of the anti-Christian world power (Rev. 13). It’s closer than we like to think. And we are...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. It has been established in previous articles in this rubric that missions, as well as local evangelism and the witnessing of the individual Christian, is not a matter of choice, but of obedience to King Jesus. This is not to say that the work of missions is the exclusive, nor even the chief, purpose of the church. The true church has a genuine, Scripturally directed concern to proclaim the gospel to the fullest of its ability. We have also established that the objects of mission work...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The task of the church in her work of missions is to teach. Not to save souls. Not to create church growth. In His “Great Commission” Jesus stated the task in the most simple terms: teach. In previous articles we have already established some of the principles of missions. First, the church of Christ performs the work of missions in obedience to her King, Jesus. Mission and evangelism work is not a matter of choice, but one of obedience. This work must be performed to the fullest...

Rev. Kortering is a Protestant Reformed minister-on-loan to Singapore. Buying missions is a common practice in the church world today. It is done by local congregations as well as by individuals. One simply shops the smorgasbord of available opportunities, makes a decision, and forks over the money. In such a process the conscience is soothed and one’s holy obligation to do mission work is satisfied. Little attention is paid to the consequences. The mission field suffers desperately, and Christ’s name is often blasphemed in the process. We must be sure we are not guilty of buying missions. The Temptation to...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. The only way to do the work of evangelism and missions is by proclaiming a “limited” atonement! “But,” it is objected, “how can mission work be effective if you cannot say that Christ died for all?” “How can one press the claim of the Gospel upon an individual, if it cannot be said to that person that Jesus died for him?” For centuries these rhetorical questions have been stated as charges against the Reformed faith, as objections which are supposed to show the fallacy of this...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Success is described as achieving fame, wealth, or rank, accomplishing one’s goal. The notorious “success story” is about someone who began small and insignificant, but became big, rich, and important. American culture has a carnal fascination with size and success. Our society appreciates everything that is big (except, maybe, the family). Success in business is identified with increased sales, advancement, and growth. Christians often seem to think in the same terms. “Success” also in the church is defined only in terms of new building programs necessitated...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. In the Puritan classic by Richard Baxter, The Saint’s Everlasting Rest, Mr. Baxter speaks of the duty of the people of God to excite others to obtain the saint’s rest, but he gives a caution about the manner of performing this duty. But because the manner of performing this work is of great moment, observe, therefore these rules: Enter upon it with right intentions. Aim at the glory of God in the person’s salvation. Do it not to get a name, or esteem to thyself, or...

Rev. denHartog is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin. It was with great joy and excitement last summer that we accepted an invitation from the Evangelical Reformed Churches in Singapore to come to Singapore to speak for their Reformation Day Rally in October. In the providence of the Lord we (my wife and I) were able to spend the last two weeks of October among the beloved saints there. Our trip was sponsored entirely by the churches there. It has been almost exactly three years since we returned to the U.S. after our years of missionary labors...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Bethel Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. Previous articles have presented some of the principles of missions. First, the work of missions and evangelism is a part of the very essence of the church. It is not .an option, which you can add on to the church if it can be afforded and if it is desirable. Therefore, the true church of Jesus Christ performs missions as an on-going act of obedience to her Lord. Doing her best with the means God has given the church brings the good news of Jesus Christ...

Mr. Doezema, a member of Southwest Protestant Reformed Church in Grandville, Michigan, is secretary of the Domestic Mission Committee. Ladarba l-bnedmin kollha dinbu f’Adam…. That’s the beginning of Artiklu 1, in a booklet entitled IL-QWIENEN TA’ DORT (traduzzjoni ta’ Paul Mizzi). The only English words in the publication come at the very end of the INTRODUZZJONI: “… Homer Hoeksema, The Voice of Our Fathers, (Reformed Free Publishing Association, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1980).” The language is Maltese. Perhaps you have already guessed the name of the publication. In the introduction the translator, Paul Mizzi, gives credit to Homer Hoeksema’s commentary on...